OMAC

So they didn't up the time limit? Great!

Yes, see this thread concerning one of the useless "filler" missions: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=116976 And yes, the soundtracks of all Arma 2 games are one of the undersung strongpoints of the games. Just frickin' awesome.

I just finished Mountain Warriors 1.3. That was my very first non-BIS user mission ever played. One word describes this mission: SUPERB! Unbelievably well-designed, fun, hard, interesting, varied, surprising. One suggestion: add more autosaves, one after fuel depot destroyed, one after convoy is ambushed with IED and destroyed. I LOVE the Takiban reinforcements driving up on motorbikes, and of course the intro. FANTASTIC!!!! Congratulations on a great mission. You obviously have a talent for this. -------------------------------------------- P.S. Why isn't there a .rar extension on the level download file? I took me quite a while to figure out what to do with that file!

It blows BAF away. If you like BIS games, you've GOT to have PMC. BAF is great, but the campaign has only 3.5 levels, and is thus so short that it's almost a joke (9 scenarios are top-notch though, also a must-have). PMC has great story and characters, awesome new vehicles and weapons (FIRST CLASS!!!), fantastic gameplay, new map, 11-level campaign, and three difficult scenarios to boot. BAF is a major letdown compared to PMC. Perhaps BIS is planning massive expansions to BAF? Like a new, long campaign? I sure hope so, and I would buy it immediately. Without expansions, designing BAF is a huge wasted effort for BIS.

I also used those defenses. However, the Convoy objective is not related to any armor/vehicles that approach and attack the base. The Convoy approaches elsewhere. Read earlier posts in this thread by me and others. There are at 4-6 vehicles that attack the base and must be destroyed, none of which have anything to do with the Convoy objective.

I just finished the Scud Buster BAF scenario. I ran out of anti-materiel rifle ammo at one point, and wanted to get a squadmate to drop a clip so I could pick it up and use it. I couldn't do it. If I selected him, and then hit "6", and selected "gear", the gear dialog would not display. One time it displayed for a split second before vanishing. Later, I asked him to gear or rearm at a truck, and the gear dialog would not come up then, either. Am I missing something? Bug? :confused: One of the options available from the "6" menu was to Open Alice Pack. What Alice pack? If I selected that, the man would move off somewhere, and nothing would happen, no gear display. Also, one of my mates got injured, and could not move at all. He couldn't board a truck, or move an inch. Niether me or my squadmates could heal him, drag him, or carry him. I had to shoot him in order to finish the scenario, as if I just left him and went to the exfil point with the rest of my squad, the scenario would not end. Any ideas?

Ah ha! Thanks! I'll try that. :)

Did you use "0" for radio and tell the tanks that's it's ok for them to pass?

Oh. The only easy way to control squad equipment loadouts is on the mission startup screen when the map and notes are displayed. If one had time, one could order a mate to rearm at the ammo crates, and then switch his weapons, but that is cumbersome, especially in a firefight.

You mean the AI that are guarding the base with AT weapons? No, I don't think that there is a way to control their arms and loadouts.

Interesting. I think your theory about Bardak is a good one. Come to think of it, you are right that the time I found Bardak in Novy Sobor, I think I had just attacked the Lesnoy Krebet hill tent camp. The time I lost him at the quarry, I found him using the UAV standing around Solnichy near the train tracks not far from the quarry. So he doesn't run that far.

Oh, the bugs. That must be frustrating about the evidence. At least you figured out a workaround. I can't bear to start up A2 again, and will probably wait at least a year, or more. Just a beast to get through. I've been tempted to revert to Manhattan to see if the 1.09 patch improves gameplay, but haven't yet. I think it was in Novy Sobor where I found him. I was driving by in Hummer, with Razor, and decided to stop and check out the church. I got out, and Bardak almost ran into me. Before I knew what was happening, the end cutscene of the capture took place. The red diamond is on the map ("M") when in UAV mode.

I will refrain from spoiling anything for you. You'll kick yourself for having asked. One hint. Don't stay out in the open near base entrance. Always be near cover. Fire will come from east, south, north, and then there's the armor. Hmmm. What could stop the accurate targeting of those mortars? Read Notes carefully. :cool:

Hanzu, I also lost Bardak once after I ran into him at the quarry. I have already written in these forums somewhere that I found him, by chance, near the church in either Novy Sobor or Stary Sobor. He was on foot. The UAV may be key for you to find him. Fly to those towns first and look for someone who is running or acting different than other AI. Very important to this issue is that he will be marked with a red diamond/cross on the UAV map, thus making it easy to track him. However, the cross may be unavailable if you play on Expert mode - it was there in Veteran mode. Good luck finding him.

I played on Veteran with only one save available. Nasty. Thanks for your story. I look forward to the bug fix.

Thanks for the info. I was quite disappointed about how short the BAF campaign was. With such a short campaign, the time spent designing all those awesome new weapons and vehicles seems somewhat wasted. The Jackal vehicle was fun, but obviously what is needed with all those insurgents around is an armored, covered vehicle with kick ass guns, like a Stryker or something, and not an open-topped death-trap dune buggy like the Jackal in which you and your crew can get popped by anyone with an AK. I've played through all of A2, OA, PMC, including all scenarios, and now I'm done with the BAF campaign, and not once has there been an opportunity to fly a fixed-wing warplane, and it seems like not all APCs have been used, either. Am I missing something? It's a bummer trying out those awesome tracked APCs in the BAF showcase, and never getting to actually use them in a fight. Hopefully I'll get to try them out in the scenarios. Yes, I heard about the broken UAV. I hope it's been fixed. ______ Edit: I'm playing Morning Dew now, and am miffed that all you get to use is a light MG with killer recoil and only a poor red dot sight. You cannot get into any vehicles to use them. Again, all one needs to make things easy in any BIS Arma 2 game is a sniper rifle with thermal scope. It seems that much of the difficulty in BIS games is related to what crappy weapons or vehicles you are limited to. BIS has designed extremely effective weapons and vehicles, but they make things hard and frustrating by limiting you to open-topped and weakly armed vehicles or crappy assault weapons. But hey, ya gotta love it all.

Interesting. The current bugs in FF are very complex, and I do not fully understand them. They involve not only flawed end states for all but the "perfect" state (HQ destroyed and 3 towns taken before 3-hr time limit), but also that objective status is checked only every 10 seconds, whereas the scenario will end immediately. I never switched OUT of HC mode - I was always the commander, and never moved my HQ. I also ordered a few of my men (not "squads" as you mention, as at the start you have very litlle $$ to buy men) to head for towns, where they took them (didn't hold for long). So, most of the time you were using the AI as commander, not yourself? It looks like you must have succeeded in capturing 3 towns and destroying the base and offices before the 3hr limit. For me, around sunrise (~6:30am game time - presumably before the 3hr time limit), objectives that I had not yet won all get a red "x" - meaning failed. I even posted a screenshot showing that. I still do not understand why this happens, I am not sure if anyone else does, either (I hope at least Dwarden does!) The mission has NEVER ended for me, no matter what I do - I've never seen the debriefing screen. Every 10 seconds, status is checked, but I don't know if one has to be currently holding a town for it to be counted, or is the "perfect" end state satisfied if you have EVER held three towns at once? Whatever the deal is, you have somehow defeated the flawed code. Good job!!!

No, the bug that I filed was in 1.08 and 1.09. It looks like you found a way to get things done without running into the issues with the non-perfect end states never ending. Congratulations! If you want, look at my posts in this thread from a few months back, and you can feel the frustration.

I agree completely on all counts. Did you play quite a while ago? I think the bugs were introduced in one of the last few patches before 1.09. People had been complaining about the time limit, so BIS may have removed the END GAME code from some of the end states. As soon as the scenario is patched, I'll try your method of moving the HQ and establishing a million ZU-23s to kill that damn base. Sounds cool. Then again, I hope BIS overhauls it so completely that it is nearly unrecognizable. The concept of an asymmetric insurgency is awesome, but beyond that things fall apart rapidly. I offer my services to test the patched scenario and offer suggestions if BIS is interested.

I agree completely. Enignoc, you got the game to end normally with all objectives completed? Have you seen the red x's in for failed objectives? As Dwarden noted, the game will never end if you destroy the base and you haven't yet captured 3 towns. No matter how much ones loves A2, this scenario ain't worth the time, and I know, as I have spent days and days on it. When they patch it, maybe I'll try again. I hope very much that BIS overhauls the thing completely, as the intense spawning and time limit are completely unrealistic.

Engioc, Thanks for your story. I have never tried moving my HQ, and don't know how to do it, but I'm sure it isn't that hard to figure out. Moving your HQ immediately to the main strongpoint of Elektro doesn't sound very realistic. My past posts in this thread, and those by PVPscene, have indicated that there are horrible bugs in the mission design that are in the process of getting fixed by Dwarden: http://dev-heaven.net/issues/18491 I strongly advise against playing the scenario until it is fixed.

Thanks for the info! It's a bummer that the locals didn't help out at the base where all the trouble is!

Thank heavens for that! :)

I just replayed both missions on Veteran, this time with local support after delivering medicine. All objectives completed, including the Convoy task. What I don't know is if one does not drive over there and take on the convoy oneself, do the locals destroy it for you? Without local support, the Convoy task cancels out after a few minutes, as I did not drive over there and get them, and the convoy broke through. This time, with local support, there were about 8 guys lying prone just west of the MG nest near the observation post. They had guns, so I wasted them all. But they didn't fire at me, and I'm wondering if they were actually friendly locals. Oh well, too bad for them if they were. However, all but three of my men are dead, including the valuable medic and engineer. Not good. Will this mean terrible trouble for me in later missions?